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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Teaching
students to compare and order decimals can be a very challenging task, but over
the past few years I have found a few activities that help to reinforce the
initial instruction of these skills.I
often begin my instruction by introducing my students to our new friend “Al E
Gator” which is just an alligator head cut out of paper.I always tell the student to imagine that
the numbers they are comparing are pieces of alligator food and point out that
Al E Gator doesn’t have a stomach, so when he eats, he never gets full.Because he is never full, his mouth will
always open to the bigger number.I then
teach them my basic rules for how to work out a comparing decimals
question.These rules are:

1.Stack your numbers while lining up the decimals

2.Count the number of place value positions to the
left and right of the decimal point

3.Add zeros to each side of the decimal point (if
needed) so that there are the same amount of digits to the right and left of
the decimal point

Once my
students understand these basic rules, I provide two groups of students with
large numbers and a decimal point.I
then tell them the number I want them to create and I have them arrange
themselves to form the numbers.Once
both groups form their numbers, I have them “Stack” themselves to work out the
problem.To do this, I have one group of
students stand and hold their cards under their chins.Then I have the other group kneel in front of
the first group while holding their cards under their chins.Once the students “Stack” themselves
correctly, I provide other students in the classroom with “zero” cards and have
them go to the front of the room and place these cards where they need to be so
that there are the same number of digits before and after the decimal.The kids enjoy moving around the room and love
this activity!

This
activity will provide the students in your classroom the opportunity to work
with a partner to review the concept of comparing decimals.The game is played with a stack of “Decimal”
cards, which are divided equally among the two students.Each student flips one of their cards over
and both students write the numbers on their work-mat.The students follow the basic rules I have
set forth for them to compare the numbers and then write the appropriate sign
between the two numbers on their work-mat.Whoever has the largest number collects the cards and play is
repeated.The student with the most
cards at the end of the game wins.

Another way I reinforce the concept of decimals is with a whole class active listening game. The interaction in this activity provides a motivating and entertaining way for students to reinforce their knowledge of decimals as part of a whole number. The game starts when a student reads the first card. The student who has the card with the answer reads his or her card. The game continues in this manner until the last card is read. Students love this game. The first time around is always a little slow, but then I love to let them play two or three times and try to beat their time.Can also be played during center time with a smaller group of students. Also, it help improve the listening skills of your students, which is always a bonus

After I have taught the concept of comparing, I
expand upon it by teaching my students how to place decimals in order from
greatest to least and least to greatest.If the students have a good grasp of comparing decimals, then this
concept can be taught fairly quickly.I
spend a few minutes introducing the concept and then go directly into having
the students place 4-5 decimals in order following the same basic rules that I
set forth for comparing decimals.This
can be done in many ways, but I choose to place my students into groups of 3-4
students and provide them with a set of cards to place in a certain order.They are instructed to follow the rules for
comparing and work together to complete the set.By placing the students in groups I am
providing the students the opportunity to learn from their peers while freeing
myself up to walk around and work with struggling groups.After the students complete several packs of
cards together, I then provide them with an Ordering Decimals Packet to
complete individually.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

1. THE POWER OF EXAMPLE— Let them see you reading. A lot. And enjoying it!

2. BOOK HOOKS— Read the first page or two of a new book, and then put it into the classroom library. Kids who were blasé became hooked on the books.

Our classroom's reading jar

3. READING JAR— In my reading corner I have a jar to record how many books we have read collectively. Every time a student reads a book from cover to cover, they can put a stone in the jar. I love hearing the clink, clink!

Our reading goal

4. MAKE A GOAL— As a class, set a goal for how many books you want to read throughout the school year (the reading jar helps me keep track of this). Display your progress with pride.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Although it is a hectic schedule I do like having the opportunity to talk to my students' parents during conferences. Knowing what is going on at home and connecting it to school is very important. I try to show the parents different ways on how they can help their child at home. I begin my conference with a form that student fills one week prior to the conference, where the student evaluates their habits at school. I absolutely love how honest my kindergartners are, and I also get to see which ones are too being hard on themselves. I usually have one or two students that have no behavior issues and they still say they need more work on one of the areas. Click here to download this FREE resource:

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

I have found a great new way to teach and assess my students, task cards! I like task cards because they are fun, easy and informative. One way I like to use task cards is in centers. I typically place the cards in my centers right after we have finished a unit. For example, when we finished our place value unit I put the place value cards in my centers. Once we finish our multiplication unit I will put the multiplication cards in the centers and move the place value cards to my early finishers bucket.

For my early finishers I have a section on my board called "I'm Done! Now What?" Students may choose any of the items in that section to do if they finish early. Some of their choices are: read a book, write a story, practice spelling words, and task cards. Once I have used a set of cards in centers for a while and students have been assessed on them I place them near my board for students to use when they have finished their assignment early.

Occasionally I like to use the task cards as an assessment. I usually use them for formative assessments, but occasionally they are used for summative assessments. I also use the cards from previous units to work with my small groups. They are a great resource for re-teaching a skill that students may have missed.

If you have not used task cards before, or even if you have but you are looking for something new, I hope that you will try out my new Fall themed math and literacy cards and tell me what you think. You can get this set for free here:

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

We have been working non-stop in out little turquoise room. We have had visits from Zero the Hero, pirates, Johnny Appleseed and an observer or two. Yes, I had my first formal observation of the year! One down just three more to go! How many formal observations/evaluations do you have in a year?

As an Apprentice Teacher, I have four every year. Woo! Talk about stressful. I was so proud of my little firstie friends though. They were amazingly behaved and had their higher order thinking caps on to boot! Thank goodness! Ok back to this past month......

This is the beginning of my favorite time of the (teaching) year.....all the fun, holidays and "extras". It just makes teaching and learning that much more fun!

The classroom got a mini makeover with some cheap (like Dollar store cheap) decor. A few leaves here, a pumpkin or two there and.....Presto! It's Fall!

I really have no clue why they have that yellow tint to them. Sorry, I promise I was not playing with the filters.

We had a ton of fun this past month and it all began with a mini unit on worms.....

There was a divide in the classroom. Those that had obviously been fishing with a worm and those that probably were not allowed to play in the dirt. I had kiddos screaming and running for their lives. The "worm friendly" kiddos and I were cry laughing. You know when you laugh so hard you are crying? Yep, we could not stop laughing. I had kids seriously wigging out over these little guys. I have to admit, I was a bit creeped out at first but we ended up having so much fun and learning a TON!

We used this wonderful unit by Kristen Smith.....

We had a pirate dress up day next for National Talk Like a Pirate Day, September 19, 2014. We used various pirate packs and Pinterest finds and had a blast....Here is peek at our Pirate week....

We had four graffiti table change-ups but I only was able to capture two on film. We played around with nouns in NOUN TOWN and took a closer look at Poetry....

We ended the month with two fantastic weeks of APPLES!!!!!

Zero the Hero stopped by with some Apple Jack fun to kick-off the week!

We made apple pies from the applesauce. See the picture below....I apparently uploaded the pictures in backwards. A normal person with normal internet would just upload again or rearrange....but my internet is acting super crazy and I just figure y'all understand. Right?

We made homemade classroomade applesauce. It made our room smell so yummy. Needless to say, we made a few new friends. :)

We taste tested red, yellow and green apples. The weirdest thing happened...every year red wins. Yellow won! It was like the twilight zone for a second.

That's it friends!

I hope you enjoyed our classroom photo montage!!!! I can't wait for October and all the fun things that go with this month....pumpkin, bats, spiders.....the list goes on and on. What will October look like in your classroom?